Clare Pollard Readings
Clare Pollard's sixth poetry collection Lives of the Female Poets was published by Bloodaxe in September 2025, following Incarnation (2017). In Lives of the Female Poets, Clare Pollard cocks a snook at Dr Johnson’s all-male Lives of the Poets in chronicling her own life and theirs. These portraits and self portraits offer glimpses into the poet’s own everyday life – from nit-combing and laundry to pollen counts and cocktails, watching school plays to shopping on Rye Lane – all whilst in conversation with female poets through the ages.
Clare Pollard has published five previous poetry collections and two translations with Bloodaxe, as well as co-editing the anthology Voice Recognition: 21 poets for the 21st century (Bloodaxe Books, 2009) with James Byrne. Translations include a new version of Ovid's Heroines (Bloodaxe, 2013) which she toured as a one-woman show, and Asha Lul Mohamud Yusuf's The Sea-Migrations (Somali title: Tahriib), published by Bloodaxe and the Poetry Translation Centre in 2017. Her non-fiction book Fierce Bad Rabbits: The Tales Behind our Picture Books was published by Fig Tree in 2019. Her novels for adults, Delphi (2022) and The Modern Fairies (2024), have been published by Fig Tree in the UK and Avid Reader in the US. Her book for children,The Untameables, illustrated by Reena Makwana, was published by The Emma Press in 2024. She won the Tadeusz Bradecki Prize in 2025 for The Modern Fairies, an award given to works that combine storytelling fiction and non-fiction in original ways, encompassing a range of artistic genres, disciplines, cultures and subjects.
Clare was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem in 2022 for her poem ‘Pollen’, first published in Bad Lilies. The poem is included in her sixth collection Lives of the Female Poets. Read 'Pollen' as it originally appeared in Bad Lilies here.
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'Taking its name – and project – from Samuel Johnson’s 1781 all-male Lives of the Poets, Pollard’s Lives of the Female Poets pays tribute to the likes of Elizabeth Bishop, Forough Farrokhzād, Praxilla, Emily Brontë and Wanda Coleman, juxtaposing poetic history with scenes from her own contemporary life as a female poet.[...] In establishing a tradition of women and women’s (written) work, Pollard elevates women’s work and lives (embodied, messy, meaty, boozy) to being worthy of poetry.' – Ellora Sutton, Mslexia
'Pollard’s latest collection spans the breadth of human creativity and creation. It’s at once a joyous tribute to some of history’s greatest female poets and to the smaller things that make a life – like cocktails, and head lice. These poems are physical and playful, bold yet delicate as we’re swept along by references and allusions that dance off the page. It’s poetry at its most confident. In the crescendoing titular poem Pollard’s “saintly Poetess” deservedly finds her place in the canon she’s honouring.' – Nasim Rebecca Asl, Poetry Book Society Autumn Bulletin 2025
'This book takes us on a dizzying journey from the grand heights of Inana - an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of war, love and fertility to a battle between a mother and the head-lice that infest her children’s hair. [...] I enjoyed every single poem in this collection, and enjoyed the feeling of meeting my literary ancestors - some of whom I knew - Sappho, Emily Bronte, Elizabeth Bishop - but there were plenty I didn’t. I’d not heard of Praxilla for example, and the beautiful fragment of her writing that we are left with.' – Kim Moore, Moore & Shaw (September Reads)
‘Sassy, clever, sharp – this collection is a delight to read, and to read aloud. Pollard’s an old hand at crafting forms, which adds satisfaction to the reading experience. In this slim but sumptuous collection, a strong, idiosyncratic voice manages to yoke the personal and the universal in a manner many less experienced poets struggle to achieve. [...] Pollard’s knowledge of the canon of female poets is disclosed but not stridently declared; we feel it is rooted in her long co-habitation with them rather than as a researched exercise [..] The book’s cover is its own poem – bringing the subjects right up to date by posting a luscious portrait of Henrietta Maria Hill ‘as the lyric muse’ in the form of a social media post.' – Hannah Stone, The Lake
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An in-depth interview with Clare Pollard featured on The Poems We Made Along the Way podcast. She was speaking about her new collection Lives of the Female Poets. Listen here.
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Clare Pollard launched Lives of the Female Poets at Bloodaxe's online reading and discussion event on 30 September 2025. Scroll down to see the video.
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FORTHCOMING READINGS
Wednesday, 11th February, 7pm
Poetry with Clare Pollard and Ian Parks
Five Leaves Bookshop, 14a Long Row, Nottingham, NG12DH
Come to readings by two exceptional poets with considerable public appeal, supported by some of the finest student poets from NTU’s Creative Writing programmes.
Refreshments included
Tickets - £5 - book here.
This event is funded by NTU’s Nottingham Creative Writing Hub and is free to students and staff of Nottingham Trent
PAST EVENTS
Tuesday 30th September 2025, 7pm, joint online Bloodaxe joint launch event
Clare Pollard was reading alongside Jessica Traynor and the winner of the Mslexia Women's Poetry Pamphlet Competition, Emilie Jelinek. They were celebrating the publication of their new collections and discussing them with each other and with the host, Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley. Beautiful readings by all three poets, followed by an excellent discussion.
This launch event is now available to watch on this YouTube page: https://youtube.com/live/He4JaXNJzdw or by pressing play on the video below.
Clare Pollard read second in each set.
[20 June 2025]
